Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

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All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all.

Each little flow’r that opens, Each little bird that sings, He made their glowing colours, He made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountain, The river running by, The sunset, and the morning, That brightens up the sky.

The cold wind in the winter, The pleasant summer sun, The ripe fruits in the garden, He made them every one.

He gave us eyes to see them, And lips that we might tell How great is God Almighty, Who has made all things well.

Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895)

Mrs Alexander is one of the truly great names in hymns for children. As Miss Humphreys she published Hymns for Little Children in 1848. She wrote to fulfil her duty to teach her godchildren the Creed. She realized how difficult this was for children, and wrote a sequence of hymns to help them. She taught them about the birth of Christ in ‘Once in Royal David’s city’, about the crucifixion in ‘There is a green hill far away’, and about God as Creator, in this hymn. This is a supreme example of a hymn that while remaining utterly suitable for children can be sung by adults with integrity. She married The Revd William Alexander in 1850. He became Bishop of Derry and Raphoe in 1867, and after his wife’s death in 1895, Archbishop of Armagh. She is always known as Mrs Alexander.

It is most unusual to find a hymn that has two equally good and equally popular tunes. ‘Royal Oak’, a seventeenth century tune, was adapted for these words by Martin Shaw. Here the choice is ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’, written by W H Monk for Hymns Ancient and Modern 1887.